OWC Mercury Elite-AL Pro Dual-Bay RAID “Quad-Interface” Solutions use the latest Serial ATA drive technology and a custom Oxford 936DS based bridge design to provide total interface flexibility along with Sustained Data Rates of well beyond 200MB/s. These solutions are excellent for a wide range of applications and data storage needs – including all the way up to live High-Definition video capture! High-Performance, Plug & Play, and Reliability backed by an industry leading 3 year full solution warranty.

They’re constructed of aircraft-grade aluminum, measure only 9.3″ L x 2.8″ W x 5.6″ H, and are fully A/V Certified as well as EMC Retrospect Backup Certified for all your A/V, Backup (Time Machine Ready), Graphics, Music, General Data needs and more! You can Plug & Play on whichever best interface option is available on your systems today as well as have future compatibility with 2 x FireWire 800 ports, 1 x FireWire 400 port, 1 x USB port, and 1 x eSATA port. Completely transparent, total interoperability of data access, read/write regardless of what computer(s) and/or interface you switch between…ease of use just doesn’t get any better than this.

Prices start at just $199.99 for these solutions with capacities going all the way up to 4TB. And speaking of that 4TB model, that’s the early “Black Friday” deal…now just $499.99…a $50 drop! And if you want to look at it on a per byte basis, that’s like $0.12 per gigabyte of storage. Or further still, you could use this 4TB model as a home media center and store up to 481 uncompressed DVD’s.

But getting back to the reasons why OWC is better than other brands – we provide detailed information in our descriptions of the exact hard disk drive models you’ll find inside our solutions as well as performance throughput test data so you can see what these fastest in class solutions can offer you in real-world use.

Like all OWC storage solutions, ,the Mercury Elite-AL Pro Dual-Bay RAID models include the full retail version of Prosoft DataBackup III ($59 retail value) for OS X and NovaStor NovaBackup ($49 retail value) for Windows. Also included is the complete Intech HD Speedtools performance suite. None of these applications are required to use the Elite, but are excellent applications to have in your utilities library. Plus, don’t overlook the convenience and cost-savings of the included FireWire 800, FireWire 400, USB, and eSATA connecting cables.

If you like everything you’ve read thus far and have your own SATA hard drives, we even have DIY Enclosure Kits starting at $107.99 for different RAID and non-RAID modes.

We just got our first 2.66GHz Quad-Core 27″ iMac i5 machine within the last hour and I really wanted to share our excitement with you.  So we took photos of our unboxing of this unit.

The box itself is sturdy and strong with a comfortable enough handle to lug this baby with it’s monster screen wherever you need:

more…

Back in August ,when Apple updated their MacBook Pro line of laptops, the ExpressCard slot was replaced with an SD cardslot.  Here in October, Apple again has added this feature to the entire iMac lineup. It’s located just beneath the optical drive on each machine.

This would be a good time to revisit my prior article: What good is the MacBook Pro SD card slot anyway? to learn how to make the most out of this added feature.  It goes into detail on making a boot drive out of an SD card as well as an emergency startup disk.

Additionally, the widescreen form factor of the new iMac lends to using the machines for multimedia displays.  An SD card makes a great medium for transferring your multimedia data between computers.  A DVD quality movie takes up about 2GB per hour of playtime.  With SD cards ranging from 2GB to 32GB currently, one could store up to 16 hours of footage on a single card.  More exciting is the introduction of the SDXC format which as early as 2010 could have us storing from 64GB up to 2.0TB on a single card.

I for one wouldn’t be surprised to see movies, TV shows and other media being distributed on SD cards just the same as we see CDs, DVDs, and Blu-ray discs currently. Time will tell on that one.

With Apple’s new machine releases, we’re hard at work in the OWC Test Labs seeing just how fast we can make the machines go.

Our first machine that we’re looking at is the October 2009 2.26GHz MacBook.  This machine is pretty tight on the inside – meaning there isn’t much extra unnecessary space inside.  Like the iPod and iPhone, conservation of space seems to be a high-priority of Apple’s design teams.  So even though the machine is lighter and sleeker, it does pose some drawbacks in upgrading.  This Macbook has no problem running either a 5400rpm, 7200rpm or SSD drive for the fastest speeds, however; the physical height of the drive is limited to the 9.5mm form factor.  The 12.5mm drives are too tall to fit in the space provided.

I should reiterate that point.  The drive doesn’t officially fit.  Sure, we were able to cram it in, and screw the cover closed (with a little bowing of the bottom) but we don’t suggest or will support actually running the drive this way.  Too much physical pressure on a drive can certainly contribute to early drive failure – it’s just not worth risking your data or the expense of a warranty compromised drive.

We’re pleased to announce our findings that our OWC brand memory certainly takes the cake in these machines!  While Apple lists 4GB as the maximum amount of installable memory, our 8GB memory kit OWC8566DDR3S8GP is now tested and fully certified for the full 8GB utilization – a real performance benefit for memory intensive application loads. While we were at it, we also tested another brand 8GB memory kit and found it consistently caused kernel panics and non-boot issues. Even though both are the same spec of DDR3 1066MHZ SO-DIMM, sometimes quality does have its result.

Thus, when we talk about how OWC brand memory meets or exceeds all Apple requirements for memory, it’s not just idle chatter or marketing-speak. Our on-premise testing lab enables us to physically confirm this fact for every machine listed in our compatibility charts.  Then, we back our quality assurance with a lifetime warranty.  How can you go wrong?

The Apple Store should be back up and running soon! As alluded to in the Apple Financial Results Conference call yesterday, some of the “exciting new products in the pipeline” are here already!

Newly Available from Apple:

Apple today unveiled an all new iMac line featuring brilliant LED-backlit 21.5 and 27-inch widescreen displays in a new edge-to-edge glass design and seamless all aluminum enclosure. The new iMac line, starting at $1,199, is the fastest ever with Intel Core 2 Duo processors starting at 3.06 GHz, and Core i5 and i7 quad-core processors for up to twice the performance. Every new iMac ships with a wireless keyboard and the all new wireless Magic Mouse, the world’s first mouse with Multi-Touch technology.

Today Apple also introduced the new wireless Magic Mouse, the first mouse to use Apple’s revolutionary Multi-Touch technology. Pioneered on iPhone, iPod touch and Mac notebook trackpads, Multi-Touch allows customers to navigate using intuitive finger gestures. Instead of mechanical buttons, scroll wheels or scroll balls, the entire top of the Magic Mouse is a seamless Multi-Touch surface. Magic Mouse comes standard with the new iMac and will be available as a Mac accessory at just $69.

If that wasn’t enough, Apple also updated its popular MacBook with a new, durable polycarbonate unibody design featuring a brilliant LED-backlit display, a glass Multi-Touch trackpad and Apple’s innovative built-in battery for up to seven hours of battery life. Inheriting technology and design features from the MacBook Pro line, the new MacBook is an ideal consumer notebook for students and new Mac users, and is available for $999.

Apple has also given what seems to be a small facelift to the ever-popular Mac mini. Now with the NVIDIA GeForce 9400M graphics processor, every Mac mini gives you outstanding graphics performance. In addition, The latest 802.11n wireless technology is built into every Mac mini.  However, we see that the memory and processor options went unchanged since the last release.

As you would expect, OWC does carry the upgrades for these new additions as well.  Give us a short while here to make the updates to our website and we’ll be back with further details…

In case you were too caught up in our Facebook images covering our wind turbine arrival, you might have missed the plethora of media attention that our newest OWC Mercury On-The-Go Pro^™ model received yesterday. What’s the big news? How does the first FireWire 800/400 and USB 2.0 bus powered 2.5” portable drive offering 1TB of storage capacity on the market grab ya?

The high-performance, pocket-sized portable storage solution for Mac or PC users features FireWire 800, FireWire 400, and/or USB 2.0 connectivity for data transfer speeds up to 100MB/s with its 1TB of storage capacity, now offers 100% more data storage capacity than the highest capacity offered in the Mercury On-The-Go Pro line at the start of September.

It’s small enough to fit into your shirt pocket yet can hold up to 1,000,000 JPEG photos, 500 DVD movies, 76 hours of digital video, or 350,000 MP3 songs in its stylish, impact resistant (teaser alert…VERY cool video coming on this soon…) acrylic case. Because it’s bus-powered, it can be used without an AC adapter which makes it perfect for road warriors, students on the go, and even the outdoors types that want to watch that latest blockbuster movie while communing with nature.

With a variety of FireWire and USB 2.0 interface models to choose from, the Plug and Play ready Mercury On-The-Go Pro can be used with Macs and PCs for data backups, transporting large files between computers, additional storage capacity, and even demanding uses like A/V editing and live music recording. The drive can also be used with storage capable digital cameras and camcorders with FireWire and/or USB data ports for fast, on-location backups of images and video.

OWC Larry was like a proud new papa when we realized that the OTG was going to be the first FireWire/USB 2.5″ 1TB external drive announced. “This was quite a month of innovations. The first week of September came the first 750GB FireWire/USB bus powered portable on the market. Mid-month we debuted solid state drive based models that are the most affordable SSD based portables on the market. Then to finish off the month with the new 1TB On-The-Go models really goes to show we put a big emphasis on even the smallest of our drives.”

The new Mercury On-The-Go Pro 1TB line is available in three interface models:

• “Triple Interface” with FireWire 800/400 and USB 2.0 connectivity, $359.99
  

• “Combo Interface” with FireWire 400 and USB 2.0 connectivity, $329.99
  

• USB 2.0 only connectivity, $299.99

All three models are available for pre-ordering with an expected shipping date of October 19. They are compatible with Apple OS 8.6 to 9.2.2, Apple OS X (all versions) including the latest 10.6 “Snow Leopard”; and Windows 98SE or later operating systems and come ready for Plug and Play ease of use with all supported interface connecting cables, carrying case, $200 retail value disk utility software bundle, and an industry leading three year complete solution warranty which also features 48 hour warranty service.

Do remember those old but memorable Doublemint chewing gum ads on TV?  The ads had a jingle with the famous phrase “Double your pleasure…Double your fun…” which lends itself perfectly to today’s examination of the OWC Mercury Elite-AL Pro Dual-Bay RAID Solutions.

Two drives for doubling your performance storage capacity up to 4TB and two interface models to double your purchase options!

Today’s spotlight rests on the “Quad Interface” model. Its custom Oxford 936DS chipset provides interface flexibility along with sustained data rates of well beyond 200MB/s. That kind of performance makes the Mercury Elite-AL Pro Dual-Bay an excellent choice for a wide range of data storage needs like backup (Time Machine ready), graphics, music, and even live High-Definition Video capture! Speaking of video capabilities, these professional grade solutions are fully A/V Certified, EMC Retrospect Backup Certified, and Pro Tools Compatible.

With two FireWire 800 ports, one FireWire 400 port, one USB port, and one eSATA port (hence the “Quad” moniker) and all interface connection cables included, the Mercury Elite-AL Pro Dual-Bay Raid Solutions are ready for Plug & Play use with Macs and PCs available today as well as in the future.

Performance can also mean knowing exactly what you’re getting and what the expected performance should be. Unlike the competition, OWC provides detailed information of the exact hard disk drive models you’ll find inside our solutions (no mystery meat here) as well as performance throughput test data to see just what you can expect from these fastest in class solutions.

And if their sleek, compact aircraft grade Aluminum housings aren’t more captivating than those TV twins, check out the attractive price drops we’ve given the Quad models:

640GB 7200RPM with 32MB of Data Buffer – $199.99
1.0TB 7200RPM with 32MB of Data Buffer was $219.99, now $217.99
1.5TB 7200RPM with 64MB of Data Buffer was $279.99, now $274.99
2.0TB 7200RPM with 32MB of Data Buffer – $294.99
2.0TB 7200RPM with 64MB of Data Buffer was $307.99, now $299.99
2.0TB Enterprise 7200RPM 64MB Data Buf – $399.99
3.0TB 7200RPM with 64MB of Data Buffer was $407.99, now $379.99
4.0TB 7200RPM with 64MB of Data Buffer was $619.99, now $549.99

See the full line up:
http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/firewire/1394/USB/EliteAL/PerformanceRAID/

As is standard with all OWC storage solutions, the Mercury Elite-AL Pro Dual-Bay Solutions include a $200 retail value disk utility bundle consisting of Prosoft DataBackup III, NovaStor NovaBackup, Intech HD Speedtools, and Carbon Copy Cloner. And, if you want to add to your utility library, you can save up to 74% off the retail price of Prosoft Drive Genius with the purchase of qualifying OWC storage products. Plus, don’t forget about the industry leading three year warranty and 48 Hour Warranty Service.

Want to DIY? Get one of our OWC Elite-AL Pro RAID SATA HD Enclosure Kits with user configurable RAID modes now starting from $107.99

There are so many great things going for the Mercury Elite-AL Pro Dual-Bay Solutions that it almost makes me want to sing about it. But that might pit me against a much better Chicago area commercial legend.

A month ago today, Apple released OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard. Coincidentally, my MacBook Pro arrived right around that same time. I took advantage of having a “pristine” system and installed Snow Leopard on it immediately.

Looking back on the last month, things went surprisingly well. One by one, I added new apps and utilities to my system, making sure to check their compatibility as I went. Fortunately, most of the programs I use every day were already 10.6-compatible. My only major losses were iStat Menus and iSync compatibility with my Palm Centro. Luckily, iStat was updated soon after the 10.6 release, and I’ve got some good leads for Palm compatibility, so I’m 99% good to go.

Sure, even a month in, there are some mild annoyances – I lost the use of the full drivers for my home printer. Sure, the Gutenprint drivers work, but they just aren’t the same. I haven’t even tried scanning anything, but I’m relatively certain that it will be an exercise in futility. However, as both the printer and the scanner are 7-8 years old, I really can’t complain a whole lot – they have far outlasted my expectations for $20 at a garage sale.

As far as “whiz-bang” new features, there really weren’t any, though adjustments to things like Image Capture, Exposé, Time Machine, QuickTime, drive and file size reporting and a number of other things were welcome changes.  While, normally, simply tweaking the system for better performance/compatibility might be considered as a “service pack,” what the Snow Leopard naysayers seemed to have missed in calling it that is the whole shift in the system’s focus.

This is the first “Intel Only” version of OS X. It cut out a lot of the older, bloated PPC code, resulting in a much smaller installation. On top of that, they’ve added easier implementation of support for multi-processor apps as well making the system 64-bit capable on hardware that supports it. While this may not be all that useful at the present time it certainly opens the door for things becoming faster as applications are rewritten to take advantage of this technology.

So what is all this saying?

Effectively, what I’m saying here is that, despite a few hiccups at the beginning, Snow Leopard is certainly heading in the right direction. There are a few missing pieces here and there, but nothing that I found to be insurmountable. Further updates, both on Apple’s part and those of software developers, will continue to improve the experience.

A month into the process, I’d say that unless you either have a machine that won’t support it or you rely on one of the applications not yet supported, it is an upgrade well worth your time and money.

We talk so much about speed, performance, and OWC in this blog that I just had to give some love to one of the exclusive brands we carry….Newer Technology, Inc. Also referred to as NewerTech, this long time Mac industry manufacturer (trivia buffs: who introduced the first memory upgrades for the Mac?)  is known today for unique consumer friendly/average user solutions that focus on product design and functionality. Case in point is today’s introduction of the NewerTech FireWire 800-400 Adapter.

What this handy little accessory solves is the quandary many of you face after buying one of the newest Mac Pro, MacBook Pro 17″, Mac mini, or iMac models….“great, with FireWire 800 only support, how do I use my existing FireWire 400 devices?” Additionally, this adapter eliminates the hassle of determining which cable type and length to buy.

With this adapter, you can now Plug and Play connect your scanner, printer, memory card reader, external drive, digital camera, iPod and other FireWire 400 devices to the latest Macs quickly and economically. Just plug the adapter into your computer’s FireWire 800 port via the 9-pin male FireWire 800 connector end. Then, just connect any standard 6-pin male FireWire 400 cable to the 6-pin female FireWire 400 connector end.

Now if all that pin and numbering stuff sounds too techie, remember how I mentioned above that NewerTech really takes into consideration the average user experience? Well, there’s even Flash based sequence on the product page that shows just how easy this adapter is to use!

Creating (and showing how to use) an accessory that maximizes your past and present technology investment? Man, nothing “average” about that and in my book, a pretty high performance commitment to thoroughness…and to NewerTech’s slogan of “Newer Is Better Than New”.

I think that it is safe to say that the iPhone is fairly popular. It seems that as of late you can’t look at any gadget/tech blog without some mention of it. The App Store offers a myriad of programs, games and utilities, and there are all sorts of third party accessories available.

Even for those Mac users that don’t have an iPhone (like myself) this is a good thing, as it seriously contributes to Apple’s bottom line, which means more money in the coffers for Macintosh R&D as well iTunes/iPhone/iPod.

Unfortunately, with wild popularity comes increased scrutiny. As a result, when something goes wrong with the iPhone, there is often a large backlash.

Just this sort of thing has happened with the recent release of iPhone OS 3.1. It seems that many users are experiencing rapid discharging of the battery since updating.

In perusing Apple’s support forums, there are a number of threads, like this one, detailing the woes of those who have installed iPhone OS 3.1 on their iPhones only to experience rapid discharging of the battery. Even after turning off some of the noted battery-draining processes, such as wi-fi, bluetooth, and push notifications, people have been experiencing a reduction in battery life.

In some cases, it seems attached to a corrupt file or application in the iPhone. In these instances, restoring the iPhone and creating a new profile (rather than importing old information) seemed to resolve the issue. Unfortunately for many others, even after performing this procedure, the problem still remains.

Apparently, though, Apple has responded to the issue and has distributed a small battery tracking application, along with a short list of troubleshooting questions, to many posters on the above-mentioned thread.

Judging by the wide range of this problem and Apple’s response, is is very likely that we will soon see another update to iPhone OS that will resolve this issue. Until that time, though, iPhone users are left to deal with the problem themselves.

Fortunately, OWC is here to help. While we can’t fix the underlying problem —that’s Apple’s domain— we’ve at least got a temporary solution for your power problems: extended battery packs.

The most form-fitting option is the Energizer Energi To Go AP iPhone Charger, which integrates a protective sleeve with either a 1000 mAh or 1500 mAh battery for extra time between chargings.

For a less specific option, there are the Macally JBox mini and the Cellboost iRecharge. Both these items allow you to simply attach to your iPhone via its USB cable and charge it that way. While not nearly as slick an option as the Energi To Go, these items have the added benefit that they can be used with any device that can be charged via USB.

For more information on the iPhone OS and Software updates, check Apple’s iPhone Support center.

As mentioned in my post from Friday, we received stock of Hitachi’s new 2.0TB 7200RPM DeskStar 7K2000 Serial ATA Hard Drive. By popular demand, we tested the three drives mentioned in that post internally in a Mac Pro to show just how much of a difference rotational speed can make when not limited to the ever-popular FW800 interface.

We benchmarked all three of these drives using the QuickBench TM 4.0 Extended Test. This test measures the drive’s ability to sustain large amounts of data (measuring between 20MB and 100MB) transferred to and from your computer.  But then measured speeds using two hi-definition tests AJA System Test and BlackMagic Disk Speed Test.

more…

I’m a recent Mac convert and loving every minute of it. Do I feel ashamed for ignoring the Windows-based units that are now collecting dust at home? A little bit, but thankfully the guilt is short-term.

I’ve been having a great time reading comments from Mac users about their experiences with Snow Leopard. It’s even more interesting to hear all the chatter about Apple’s first OS update 10.6.1, made available less than two weeks after releasing Snow Leopard. Some users have called the OS release “pointless” due to the lack of new features. Others, wanting to keep their OS up-to-date, have willingly embraced the update.

What’s in the update?

Apple suggests that users update to 10.6.1 because it offers “general operating system fixes that enhance the stability, compatibility, and security of your Mac.” The update itself fixes a Mail issue, includes a more recent version of the Flash plug-in for Safari and provides device updates for modems, printers and DVD drives. For more details, see the full summary of 10.6.1 fixes from Apple.

Newbie says what?

I’m a glass-half-full guy and tend to focus more on positive benefits. Although some users have criticized this release as a knee-jerk reaction by Apple to offset product launch shortcomings, I personally think is sends a clear message that they take security seriously.

Generally speaking, it appears that a number of users are reporting improved performance and bug fixes after applying the update. The good news is that if you are running newer software it is unlikely that you will experience compatibility issues since most applications that work on Mac OS X 10.5 will also work in 10.6. It’s important to note that not every program has been tested and in some cases it’s up to the user to determine which applications still work. For example, Adobe decided to test Creative Suite 4 for compatibility on Snow Leopard without any mention of supporting CS3. What’s a CS3 user to do? Some are running CS3 on 10.6 without any issues; others are frustrated while teetering between waiting for a fix or upgrading to CS4.

When it comes to discussing hardware and software support under a new OS, I feel it’s all about shared liability – if the OS includes radical changes, some programs will not work or may require an update. If the developers do not test their software with the new platform or offer an alternative solution, they risk alienating loyal users.

It’s been at least a month since I’ve booted up a Windows machine at home and I am certain that there are countless updates, security patches, service packs and bug fixes are waiting for me. The decision to install the single point revision to SL seems easy compared to my previous life of daily Windows updates.

I’m also a marketing guy and understand Apple’s desire to release Snow Leopard early to meet customer demands. At some point you have to release what you have to the masses in order to address real-world application issues and improve the overall user experience.

The 10.6.1 update may not address every issue that has been logged, but it’s a quick step in the right direction. If you are having a problem and don’t find it resolved with this release, be sure to let Apple know via Apple’s feedback page for Mac OS X.

We just received stock of Hitachi’s new 2.0TB 7200RPM DeskStar 7K2000 Serial ATA Hard Drive. We always test and qualify new products of this nature before releasing them for sale and man, these drives are fast! Rock Solid, High Performance, Quiet too. The only 7200RPM 2.0TB single drive model currently available and by far, the fastest 2.0TB Serial ATA (SATA) drive available today.

But don’t just take our word on it, see for yourself:

We benchmark all of our hard drive solutions using the QuickBench TM 4.0 Extended Test.  This test measures the drive’s ability to sustain large amounts of data (measuring between 20MB and 100MB) transferred to and from your computer.  For the purposes of this run, we used our OWC Mercury Elite-AL Pro Quad Interface Storage Kit and compared three of the 2.0TB hard drive mechanisms currently in our lineup: more…

We’ve got a new Installation Video this week. This time around, we show you how to install a hard drive in the Newer Technology miniStack.

We all love the miniStack. Its small form factor, support for large SATA hard drives, built-in USB and FireWire powered hubs and all the most popular connections make it an affordable, easy-to-integrate storage solution. I should know; I have a pair of them at home connected to my AirPort Extreme as AirDisks.

Of course, not everybody needs a whole new storage solution; sometimes you just need to drop an existing 3.5” hard drive into a new enclosure.

Fortunately, you can still get all the features of the miniStack while using your own drive. All you need is a miniStack 0GB kit, your own SATA hard drive and this new video, and you’ll be up and running in no time.

Check out the new video, either in our Tech Center or at our YouTube Channel and see how easy it actually is to install, and stay tuned… we’ve got a fun new video in the works that we think you’ll enjoy; we know we’re enjoying putting it together.

There are few constants in life. Death and taxes are the cliché ones. I’ll also add to the list the Chicago Cubs not making it to the World Series, movies based off of video games being terrible, and memory upgrades from Apple costing way too much.

That last one is a big one in the Mac community; it can cost up to $1100 to upgrade the latest model iMac, MacBook or MacBook Pro to a full 8GB if you get your memory from Apple.

That’s just plain silly.

As we have mentioned time and time again, adding more memory is—dollar for dollar—the most cost-effective upgrade you can perform on your Mac, a constant that is even more true now that Snow Leopard is on the scene. That is, of course, as long as you don’t fall into the trap of buying your memory from Apple.

OWC now has 8GB upgrade kits for $519.99. That’s less than half of what it would cost to upgrade your Mac to 8GB at the factory. Making this deal even better, an additional $45 Rebate is available with the trade-in of the factory standard 4GB memory set (two 2GB chips), giving this upgrade a net cost of well under $500! That’s a heck of a lot better than the $1100 Apple charges. The only difference is that you need to install it yourself. Fortunately, we have free instructions for performing these upgrades easily available.

There are also 6GB Kits for both the latest the latest DDR3 models as well as 6GB DDR2 Kits for previous generation iMac, MacBook, and MacBook Pro models that originally only had up to 4GB possible. Prices for these start at $174.99 for the DDR2 kits and $299.99 for the DDR3 kit, and these are immediately available.

Of course, if you want more RAM but don’t want to max out the machine, there are other options available for iMacs, Mac minis, MacBooks  and MacBook Pros, as well.

For those of you who have been putting off the purchase of a new OWC Mercury Elite-AL Pro “Quad-Interface” Storage Solution, your procrastination has paid off. We’ve dropped the prices even lower - they’re now more affordable than ever.

While I could go on about the features of the drive, I’ve already done that in other posts, and I really hate to repeat myself.

So, instead, I’d like to share a couple of my favorite quotes from recent reviews of the Mercury Elite-AL Pro series.

The first one came from About.com earlier this week. This article caused me a little bit of confusion; while all the specs were modern, the physical description (and the pictures) were of the older case design, which we retired last December. Performance didn’t change, though, and that’s something important to note. Since little about the bridge board itself has changed, data throughput will have remained just as good.

However, the main reason I’m including it  is that it had a great opening paragraph, which kind of sums up why I, myself, happen to like this series of drives.

OWC’s Mercury Elite-AL Pro series of external hard drives and cases provides more bang for the buck, not only in having a quad interface made up of USB 2.0, FireWire 400, FireWire 800, and eSATA ports, but also in ruggedness and ease of assembly and use.

Pretty spot-on, I’d say.

The other quote I have is from MacTalk. Whereas the About.com review needed an entire, eloquent paragraph to distill its essence, MacTalk’s review was best summed up in a single sentence:

The OWC Mercury Elite-AL Quad Interface external drive enclosure is one bitchin’ fast enclosure.

Oh yeah…. that’s what I like to hear.

I could probably go on all day about the rave reviews the Mercury Elite-AL series has gotten, but I get the feeling you may be more interested in the actual prices…

• 250GB 7200RPM with 16MB Data Buffer – $119.99
• 320GB 7200RPM with 16MB Data Buffer – NOW $122.99
• 500GB 7200RPM with 16MB Data Buffer – NOW $129.99
• 750GB 7200RPM with 32MB Data Buffer – $159.99
• 1.0TB 7200RPM with 16MB Data Buffer – NOW $164.99
• 1.0TB 7200RPM with 32MB Data Buffer – NOW 179.99
• 1.0TB “Enterprise Class” 7200RPM with 32MB Buffer – $229.99
• 1.5TB 7200RPM with 32MB Data Buffer – NOW $219.99
• 2.0TB GreenPower w/32MB Data Buffer – NOW  $329.99
• OWC Mercury Elite-AL Pro 0GB Enclosure Kits are also available starting from $49.99. These kits allow you to install your own 3.5” SATA drive in a versatile, high-quality enclosure.

The OWC Mercury Elite-AL Pro “Quad Interface” has always been a great value. Now, with this latest round of price drops, the value is even better.

It’s been quite a past two weeks around these parts for one of the stars in the OWC storage solution product line up…the Mercury On The Go Pro bus powered portable storage solution. Last Thursday, just before the long holiday weekend, we announced the first 750GB FireWire 800/400 and USB 2.0 bus powered portable storage solution on the market.

Then yesterday, we boldly launched our first Solid State Drive (SSD) based Mercury OTG (we’re big fans of acronyms…in case you ever wondered why we call ourselves by OWC too…) models as the lowest priced SSD equipped FireWire/USB bus powered portable drives on the market.

All that innovation got me thinking that perhaps this created quite a dilemma for some of you on which solution to actual buy. To SSD or HDD? Well, the answer to that question comes down to a few intangibles of personal needs, budget, and if you suffer from continuous “gotta have the latestitis“.

Capacity

This isn’t even a contest…kinda like matching a Porsche versus a Beetle. Both share bloodlines back to a common parent company, but there’s some serious horsepower under the hood of one. Same thing here…The HDD equipped Mercury On The Go Pro ranges from 80GB to an industry highest 750GB. The new SSD based Mercury OTGs range from 64GB to 256GB. To put that in perspective, you can store up to approximately 262,500 songs on the 750GB HDD model while up to only 89,600 songs will fit on the biggest SSD model. Winner: HDD

Price

Again, a bit of a mismatch when comparing the latest technology to one that’s been on the market for 53 years. Of course, market forces and innovations would have brought the “old school” HDD down in price by now. For a similar capacity comparison, the Mercury OTG “Triple Interface” 250GB HDD model runs $119.99 for the 5400RPM model and $139.99 for the 7200RPM model. The Triple Interface 256GB SSD Mercury OTG will set you back $729.99. Breaking that down to cost per gigabyte, 256GB runs you $2.85 a gig while the max for the HDD 250GB models is a paltry $0.539 per gig. Winner: HDD

At this point you might be wondering why you’d even consider an SSD model. Here’s where they really shine:

Performance

The SSD based Mercury On The Go Pros are simply the fastest FireWire/USB bus powered portable drives you can fit into your shirt pocket. They deliver up to 2.5X faster boot time and up to 120X faster seek time over conventional drives for near instantaneous data access. While a full suite of performance benchmark charts are coming soon, I can clearly call the Winner here as SSD.

Reliability

You do know that SSDs have no moving parts, right? That feat alone delivers all sorts of great benefits: completely silent 0dB sound measurements by our audio staff expert; up to 4.5X higher shock resistance (we’ll be showing this soon in an informative, yet entertaining video); and up to 28% greater temperature operating range than conventional drives. All that adds up to offering you unmatched reliability in the most severe of operating environments. If you work from a “mobile office”, need a drive for live music recording, or just live life in the fast lane, the SSD based Mercury OTG models are ready to take the abuse. And they’re built to last too – with up to 3X longer use hours than conventional drives. Winner (by a landslide): SSD

So, two rounds to SSD and two rounds to HDD. Is there any clear winner? Sure…YOU. As corny as that might sound, you now have the luxury of choosing the best of attributes in an award-winning product to meet your particular needs and preferences.

Since Snow Leopard’s release a couple of weeks ago, there have been several reports of various optical drives being unable to read the installation DVD. There have also been reports of these same drives being unable to read other DVDs, as well.

What the heck is going on here?

There have been reports of some “bad” copies of the Snow Leopard installer disc, which would explain some of the instances. A trip to your local Genius Bar or a call to Apple customer service can usually resolve that issue.

There are, however, a number of instances that were not resolved simply by using a different disc. In these cases, the optical drive stopped being able to read DVDs at all. In a large amount of the cases shown on the Apple Support discussion boards, it seems that many of these computers were infrequently used, so it is quite likely these were cases where the optical drive was bad or on the verge of failing, but infrequent use made diagnosis difficult. Interestingly, almost all of the drives having these problems were the stock drives that came with the computer.

So what can we do?

Usually, if your drive stops reading media, that’s a good clue that the drive needs to be replaced. If your Mac is still under AppleCare, then you should be covered. However, for those past the warranty and don’t have AppleCare, you’ve still got options.

1. Set up another Mac (running OS X 10.5 or later) to share its optical drive with the afflicted computer. While designed for the MacBook Air, this should work with any Mac. Though it is probably the least expensive method (as song as you have a second Mac) it is also frightfully slow, as it has to transfer all the data across your network.
2. Replace the optical drive with a new one. If you had AppleCare, the main resolution would be to replace the drive itself. So, why not do it yourself? Other than the SATA slot-loading drives found in the latest models (which would still be under warranty, anyway), OWC has replacement internal optical drives for a wide array of Macs. The drives aren’t the only thing, though. We also have instructional videos that walk you through the process of replacing the optical drive for many Mac models.
3. Use an external optical drive. This is a fairly good option for slot-loading machines – especially iMacs and Mac minis – since you can get optical drives with faster speeds and features that may not be available on a slot-loading drive, such as Blu-ray disc burning (sorry, still no BD movie playback, yet) and and Lightscribe labeling. OWC has a number of external optical drives available, all of which are bootable and will work with your Mac.

Don’t let a failing optical drive stop you from enjoying the benefits that upgrading to Snow Leopard provides. With our wide array of optical drive solutions and technical information, OWC can help get you on your way with a minimum of effort.